Voting booths provide an area of privacy for those exercising the right to vote. Whether the vote is for electing an individual to a position of leadership, or deciding whether to tax cigarettes, the right to vote is a most private matter. For this reason, voting booths of most every configuration can be found; all with a purpose of providing an area of privacy for the individual exercising their freedom to vote. For instance, stand alone units are well known wherein curtains are hung around the individual for privacy. More elaborate booths might have computer terminals built into the stands.
Most every voting booth is portable as they are used only temporarily. The voting process is performed on a predefined date, and depending on the type of election, might require assembly once, twice or multiple times per year. Due to the amount of people that are involved in voting, a school or church having a large area is typically employed. For instance, a school cafeteria may be employed wherein portable stands are assembled and made available for the voting public. Without such devices, the election process would fail to render the actual beliefs of the voters.
There are numerous types of voting booths, each having a configuration that permits various degrees of privacy. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,445,731 describes a portable voting booth. U.S. Pat. No. 4,854,652 describes a dual voting both comprising members that fit together to form a compact carrying case for other components. U.S. Pat. No. 6,827,262 describes another type of portable voting booth. U.S. Pat. No. 7,895,954 describes a nestable voting booth. One shortcoming associated with current systems relates to the need for municipalities to provide voting booths that are standard in size, as well as voting booths that are compliant with federal laws, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Voting booths sized to accommodate individuals using a wheel chair have been designed as independent voting booths which differ from standard booths. Such arrangement results in increased costs as municipalities are forced to buy not only standard sized voting booths, but also independent voting booths which accommodate wheel chair bound voters. In addition to the increased costs of having to buy and maintain a larger pool of voting booths, having two different types of voting booths makes it harder for municipalities to store such large number of booths. Moreover, having to distribute and set up a large amount of voting booths increases the time and number of city employees and/or volunteers required to set up in the voting places on election days, thereby increasing costs.
Therefore, what is needed in the art is an easily storable, nestable, single voting booth that is adjustable to various heights, including heights that allow wheelchair bound individuals to easily use such booths.